Temperature
Temperature. This is one of the more intristic details about Sword Quest that most people ignore, and at the very least, most beginners do not understand. While in some cases you can ignore it; in other cases, especially where Fusion is concerned you need to pay careful attention to it. 'How it works' When you first start your craft, any craft, the starting temperature of your sword is 10. Every time someone hammers your sword, the temperature will rise by 1. If 5 people hammer your sword, that is +5 degrees on your sword. However, a critical hit with a hammer raises the temperature by an extra 1 degree, so it is possible (but unlikely) that you will gain 10 degrees from 5 people. However, for every 1 hour that your sword takes to develop, it will cool down by 2 degrees if it's under 25 degrees. In some cases, this doesn't matter, e.g. Bronze takes 2 hours. So even if no one, including yourself, hits it, your temperature will finish at 6 degrees. So basically, if the craft takes 5 hours or less, you will never need any help heating it up. As long as you hit it at least once. It will always finish with positive temperature. The problem is for the ones that take longer than 5 hours. Which is by and away, around 90% of every craft you will do in the game. Every Fusion and every metal past Steel will take longer than 5 hours. The way you take care of this is with your Fire Hammer. It will add 5 temperature to your craft. That is 2.5 hours. So, for Mithril and above, and every Fusion. Unless you are staying home that day, you will need to account for work and sleep. Around 6 to 9 hours depending on your schedule. 12 to 18 temperature. That is 3 to 4 hits of your Fire Hammer. Remember. the Fire Hammer has a recharge timer of 30 minutes. Do not think you can start a craft right before a long day and get your 4 hits in. You need to take into account the recharge timer. Variables to this is that, again, for every 1 person who hits it, the temperature will go up by 1. If you have a lot of active friends, you will perhaps never need to hit it, or hit it once. Also, your friends can use the Fire Hammer on your craft as well. But do not rely on them to do so. I have seen many Fusions fail because they had a 24 hour timer(-48 degrees), and they froze. The other variable is that even at - degrees, you can still use your Fire Hammer. The rate and way you keep your craft warm will depend on what you are crafting, and how many active friends you have. This is for the temperature dropping. On the other side, you can not just pound the craft with your hammer and get your friends to do so and think everything is A-ok. At 25 temp, it changes, your craft's temperature will rise by 2 every hour. This can also cause a Fusions to fail as the penalty for burnt is more severe than the one for frozen. This is where the Ice Hammer comes in. If you have many active friends on your list and you have started a fusion, 15 friends hitting it is enough to raise the craft temperature to 25 degrees. If no one else hammers it, the temperature will still go up by 2 degrees every hour unless someone uses Ice Hammer to cool it to under 25. It takes 8 hours for the craft to go from 25 to 40 and recieve a -10 Danger penalty, however, you should take in consideration the fact that people can still raise the temperature of the craft up to 30 by hammering it, which makes it only 5 hours away from getting the first penalty. When the craft hits Danger (-10 quality) and is at 40, the temperature will keep rising until it hits 45 (this takes an only 3 hours). Once a craft is at 45 it gets the Burnt penalty (-35 quality). None of the penalties are reversible and the Ice Hammer is useless at this stage. NOTE: 'For the craft to get the first penalty, it has to be at least a 5 hour craft. However, the second penalty only applies to crafts that take 8 hours or longer. 'Danger, Burnt, Cold, Frozen *'Danger': Temperature range from 40° to 44° ; -10 Quality *'Burnt:' Temperature Above 45° ; -30 Quality *'Cold: '''Temperature range -10 to -19° ; '-10 Quality''' *'Frozen' Temperature at -20° ; -30 Quality This can easily cause you to fail Fusions. If you have the full 250/250 status but also Burnt. That is +25 and -35. You are going to get -10 Quality. And on a high end Fusions, that is fail. Pay attention to the temperature. 'Fire & Ice Stones' The two exceptions to this temperature rule are Fire Stones & Ice Stones. If you cause the temperature to go in the direction of their respective element you can actually get a boost from it. *When a Fire Stone is in Danger status, it receives a +3 boost. In Burnt status, +5. *When an Ice Stone is in Cold status, it receives a +3 boost. In Frozen status, +5. Note: Divine Fusions will not get a bonus as they are Divine Fusions, not Ice or Fire ones. Repairing and Preventing. Once you have gotten either a Danger, Cold, Burnt or Frozen Penalty to your craft, the -* to your Quality will remain. I.e. If you come home from work, or wake up, and your craft is at 40 temp with a -10 Danger status, even if you hit it with an Ice Hammer and do so until the temperature is at an acceptable level, the Danger penalty will stay there. There is only 1 way to repair that. You will have to purchase the Recover Hammer. This can only be used in the finishing phase, or after the sword has finished. It also costs 15 Smith Tokens, so before you do so, better to decide if it is really worth it, and only use it when you are certain that you will complete the Fusion if you remove the penalty. The other alternative is to prevent it from ever happening and completely eliminating temperature from playing a role in your craft. The Shield Hammer for 2,500 gil will grant an immunity to temperature penalties. This though, can only be applied in the preparation phase, while it is still a chunk of metal. It also only has 5 charges. It will help you not have to worry about the temperature factor, and instead just the Quality factor. If the temperature of your Fusion can vary, and you have failed a craft or two because of the temperature penalty, especially when you hit the required Quality number. This is a good purchase. Fusions takes up a lot of time and table slots. Having to repeat it again because of a temperature failure, or several repeats can be very stressful. 'Summary' Try to keep your temperature guage around 20 for longer Fusions. This allows you to have several friends hit it without making you go into overheat status, as well as gives you 12 hours at minimum before you have to worry about hitting it again. If you have fire or ice elementals, be a little more generous with the hammer at first. Remember, for every 1 hour, you lose 2 temperature. Good luck with your crafts, hopefully this will help less people fail a fusion because of the temperature penalty.